Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Review

All in all, totally worth the playtime and highly recommended for fans of adventure gaming and fans of Strong Bad

I’m an unrepentant adventure gaming fan, particularly the episodic games coming out of TellTale games, which started with the Sam and Max franchise two years ago. This summer TellTale has teamed up with another great line up of personalities to offer Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Season one Episode 1. (I am so referring to this as SBCGAP because it’s just too much of a mouthful!) Much like Sam and Max this season will consist of five episodes, which can be downloaded from TellTale about once a month or available all together at the end of the season for a bit of a price break.

If you are unfamiliar with the character of Strong Bad and his various wacky companions it’s worth it to take a refresher course before playing SBCGAP. The game is based on interactions between the characters and you’ll miss a lot of the humor and the driving force of the storyline if you don’t know who they are as there isn’t a lot of ingame explanation.

Yes, a race race race race…huh?

Heya Coach Z!

Getting down to the technical bits of the game, just briefly I promise, you’re not going to be blown away by either sight or sound. However, this is very deliberate. The artwork and graphics match what is typically seen on the Strong Bad website and I think it would be a mistake to pull too far away from the origins. The look is brushed up and updated and the animations smooth and easy to watch. Sound wise the quality and voice acting is top notch, pulling in the voices from the original. Some of the musical choices seem a bit dated, almost midi sounding at some points, but again match what’s going on in the game or are used for underlining moments of humor.

The game play takes advantage of established adventure gaming standards. You’ll click on objects for humorous commentary or to add to your inventory, use said objects alone or in combination to solve puzzles and achieve goals and talk to other characters. There’s a storyline to follow, puzzles to solve, mini games to beat and stuff to collect. They don’t fail in any of these aspects. However, they add some unique Strong Bad Attitude to everything they do.

When you interact with someone you have the choice to talk about them, then to choose HOW you talk about them. Devil Strong Bad will insult and tease, and Angel Strong Bad will…umm…well…insult and tease but in a much nicer way that almost sounds like being nice. This becomes important when you want information from someone. If you piss them off too much they won’t tell you anything until you suck up enough to change their opinion. You also work to collect odd trophies, costumes – which you can dress SB up in and take pictures – pages to your favorite game manual, and Teen Girl Squad ideas. As you pick up each of these odder items your personal awesomeness level goes up!

One of my favorite features is the Strong Bad map. After you encounter an area or are told about someplace, you can choose where to draw it on your Strong Bad map. This is fun, but more importantly you can go anywhere on your map by just left clicking on it. There really isn’t a lot of wandering forever to get between two points where you need to accomplish stuff. This is an improvement on the Sam and Max pattern, and I’m hoping we might see more aspects like this in future TellTale games.

Who doesn’t want a giant silver trophy?

RUN! Giant Homestar!

I finished SBCGAP in a little over three hours, which isn’t a bad exchange for 8.95. I think TellTale has found a good price point for these episodes, as long as they keep the content quality up and the playtime high.

Top Gaming Moment:

STRONG BAD'S COOL GAME FOR ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE VERDICT

All in all, totally worth the playtime and highly recommended for fans of adventure gaming and fans of Strong Bad. You Homestar runner fans can just…umm…go run the race to the end of the race.